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He nodded, a lump growing in his throat when he thought about that time. “She never even told me she was sick. I remember her hugging me before I boarded the plane. It was my second deployment, and I knew I wouldn’t see her for a while.” He swallowed hard as he recalled how tightly her arms had been around him and how she’d whispered how proud she was of him. “She knew she was sick then, but she didn’t want me to know.”
“That’s so sad.” She squeezed his hand in sympathy. “And you never heard from anyone from her family?”
“An uncle—one of my mom’s brothers—called about a month after she passed. Left a voice mail wanting us to meet. I never called him back.”
“You didn’t want to at least give them a chance?”
“For over two decades, they ignored her. Pretended she didn’t exist. I wasn’t about to give them a second of my time.”
When he’d lost his mom, the pain had been all-consuming. But Jazz had been through so much more. Not only had she lost both parents, she’d lost the brother she adored. She rarely talked about what had happened to her after Brody had disappeared, and he wasn’t going to bring it up now, but Xavier knew she’d had it rough until she’d met Kate Walker.
And that was a conversation for another day, too.
They came to his favorite place on the property—one of the biggest reasons he’d wanted to build up here.
“Oh, Xavier,” Jazz breathed, “it’s beautiful.”
Smiling proudly, as if he’d had anything to do with the view, he pointed to a bench a few feet away. “Come sit.”
Dragging her eyes away from the magnificence of the snow-capped mountain range, she glanced to where he was pointing.
“Did you put that there?”
“Yeah. While the cabin was being built, I worked on this.”
She jerked her head around, surprise on her face. “You built this? How did I not know that you’re a talented carpenter?”
“I’d say there are a lot of things we don’t know about each other.”
Nodding, she dropped onto the bench with a sigh. “True. When we’re on missions, our focus has to be on the job.”
Settling down beside her, Xavier inhaled deeply, the combination of some of the purest air on the planet and Jazz’s sweet fragrance was a heady mixture. How many times had he envisioned sitting beside her on this bench and sharing this view with her?
“Can I ask a favor?” she asked softly.
“Of course.”
“Can we take the next few days just for us?”
Turning to face her, he asked, “What do you mean?”
“It’s just what you said. There’s still so much we don’t know about each other. Maybe that seems selfish, since there’re people out there who are literally looking to kill us, but?—”
Xavier pressed a finger to her lips to stop her. “That’s an excellent idea. You and me…we don’t take vacations like a lot of people. There’s no reason we can’t take a few days off and just be together.”
“So that sounds okay to you?”
Pulling her closer, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered against her hair, “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Chicago
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Oscar considered all the tasks he still needed to do. Just because things had worked out well so far didn’t mean he could rest on his laurels. There were miles to go before he slept—or something like that.
Now that Kevin was out of the picture, he could move forward at the pace he preferred. At the thought of his nemesis, he let a smirk twist his mouth. The idiot had never known how much he’d hated him. Playing the lackey for years had been infuriating, but also amusing because he’d known he was ten times smarter than his stupid-assed brother-in-law. The man had never had a clue. Kevin Doyle had gotten what he deserved, but Oscar had never thought Kevin’s demise would come at the man’s own hand. That had been just too perfect to consider.
When he’d told Ryan, his nephew, what his father had done, the boy hadn’t believed him at first. Why would he? Ryan hadn’t known about the McAlister girl or what his father had planned. Learning that his father had killed his mother had come out of the blue. Not that Ryan had any kind of affection for the old bastard. Kevin Doyle had been a shitty father.